Climate Stories
Climate Stories is an interdisciplinary mobile platform that introduces children ages 6–10 to climate change through interactive storytelling and play-based learning. Currently, New York State lacks a comprehensive K–12 climate curriculum and this absence threatens the climate preparedness and economic resilience of its youth.
The project aims to address this critical gap in environmental education by making learning sensorial, participatory, and engaging through interdisciplinary, narrative, and play-based workshops that integrate seamlessly into existing curricula. Organized around themes such as renewable energy, water conservation, and waste management, Climate Stories communicates key scientific concepts, explores the social and ecological impacts of climate change, and highlights community-based strategies for resilience. By linking narratives of those most impacted by the climate crisis to tangible, story-driven props and toys, the project fosters place-based learning, compassionate engagement, and ecological thinking—empowering young learners to connect global challenges with local action.
Partnering with P.S. 270, a Brooklyn public school committed to justice-centered and community-engaged education, Climate Stories will co-develop three in-class workshops for 2nd grade students, designed in collaboration with teachers through co-design sessions. Each workshop will be aligned with existing EL Education Curriculum units—community, fossils, and pollination—providing pathways to explore how varied pedagogical approaches can support climate literacy, collective action, and integration of climate education into standardized early childhood learning.
The project is led by Swati Piparsania, Assistant Professor of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute and founder of the Participatory Ecologies Lab (Parti-Eco), together with Pratt industrial design students. The team will prototype, test, and refine both toys and activities, while using the process as a site of research into potential points of intervention for introducing climate education into school curricula. By integrating art and design methodologies into a multi-sensory experience, Climate Stories makes environmental learning accessible and actionable, while enabling inquiry-based and culturally responsive education.